Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a walking toy powered by a spring. More specifically, the invention relates to a walking toy which can walk upright on two foot and is caused to walk or run in an arbitrary direction while shuffling without separating its feet from a floor surface.
Description of Related Art
In the present specification, a walking direction is referred to as a forward/backward direction, a horizontal direction orthogonal to the walking direction is referred to as a left/right direction, and an up/down direction is referred to as a vertical direction. The left/right direction refers to a width direction. In the specification, surfaces on which the toy is caused to walk are referred to collectively as a floor surface.
As conventional toy, there is a toy which can walk briskly by moving both feet alternately forward and backward in a shuffling manner without separating the feet from a floor surface as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,668.
This toy has two leg members and two foot members having the same lengths and capable of swinging forward and backward with respect to a body. Crank pins of crank mechanisms provided with a phase difference of 180° therebetween to opposite ends of an output shaft of a spring-driven gearbox are respectively engaged with vertical elongated holes formed in the paired leg members. By converting rotation of the output shaft of the gearbox into forward and backward swing movements of the leg members and the foot members via the crank mechanisms, the paired leg members and the paired foot members move alternately forward and backward. Therefore, instead of walking while completely spacing a bottom of each of feet from the floor surface, the toy walks with the bottoms of the feet in slight contact with the floor surface while moving the left and right feet alternately forward and backward in a shuffling manner.
This toy is characterized in that it wanders and moves around freewheelingly, because a traveling direction of the toy is changed by a slight change in frictional resistance.
However, the walking toy disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,668 has a basic problem of displacement of a center of gravity in a leftward or rightward direction caused by a winding knob for winding a spiral spring of the gearbox and sticking out sideways in a left-right direction of the body.
Moreover, the winding knob needs to be in a certain size so that it can be pinched with fingertips and turned irrespective of a size of the toy. Therefore, the smaller the toy, the greater the influence of the knob on the displacement of the center of gravity in the left-right direction becomes. The knob makes an attitude of the toy unstable and causes the toy to fall down during walking.
Furthermore, a gravity center position adjusting member for adjusting a position of the center of gravity of the toy can be provided only to a side of the body opposite from a side on which the winding knob sticks out. Therefore, a moving range of the center of gravity is limited to the one side of the toy, which makes movements of the toy monotonous.
Moreover, the operation of pinching the winding knob with fingertips and turning it cannot be carried out by one hand. If a user winds the toy placed on the floor surface, he/she needs to pinch the winding knob with his/her fingertips to wind it while holding down the toy and such an operation is not easy for infant users.
If a user holds the toy in his/her hand and winds the winding knob, he/she tends to upset balance of a standing attitude of the toy when he/she puts the toy down on the floor surface and lets go of the toy and easily causes the toy to fall down immediately after the toy starts walking.
In either case, the operation of pinching the winding knob with fingertips and turning it is a difficult operation for infants who like this type of toy. If the toy repeatedly falls down, it may quickly put the infants off playing with the toy. Therefore, such improvements as to make the toy easy for the infants to play with are desired to be made.
Moreover, the spring-driven gearbox requires a space for housing the spiral spring which expands in a radial direction, resulting in increase in size of the gearbox. The winding knob which is turned while pinched with fingertips also needs to be in a certain size. Therefore, there is a limit to reduction in size of the gearbox, which leads to difficulty in reduction in size of a body of the toy having the gearbox mounted therein and reduction in size of the toy.
Furthermore, though the gravity center position adjusting member for adjusting the position of the center of gravity of the toy is provided to one side face of the body to be able to turn forward and backward in the walking toy disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,628,668, the member cannot be detached and is only for changing the position of the center of gravity.
Therefore, a user plays with the toy, just enjoying changes in the movement of the toy. It is impossible to impart plots such as changes in a character embodied by the toy, e.g., growing up of the character and upgrades of functions to the toy. Moreover, it is impossible to change quality of the movement as the character grows up and functions are upgraded.
Furthermore, a user plays with the walking toy by simply causing the toy to walk straight forward or backward on the floor surface, walk forward or backward while turning, or turn around or step in place. The toy is lacking in elements of competition play in which the toy competes against a walking toy of another user.